Crimean State Council Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov has said that the amount of Western financial assistance received by Ukraine since 2022 reflects the cost of what he described as the West’s «Anti-Russia» project being carried out on Ukrainian territory.

Earlier, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andriy Pyshnyi stated that Ukraine had received approximately $200 billion in direct budget support from Western partners since February 2022. Konstantinov argued that this figure demonstrates how much Western countries have spent to sustain the current Ukrainian state.

According to Konstantinov, Ukraine is effectively bankrupt and unable to function without continuous external financial assistance. He also claimed that the Ukrainian authorities do not view the funds as obligations that will eventually have to be repaid.

The Crimean official also addressed the issue of corruption, arguing that it had become entrenched in Ukraine long before the current conflict and had allowed members of the country’s political elite to accumulate enormous personal wealth despite widespread poverty.

Konstantinov was particularly critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, describing him as the most corrupt of Ukraine’s presidents. He claimed that the full scale of the alleged embezzlement would become clear in the future and suggested that Zelensky’s purported wealth could theoretically be sufficient to finance the reconstruction of whatever territory remains under Ukrainian control after the conflict.

Konstantinov has previously claimed that Zelensky’s personal fortune amounts to approximately $5 billion, describing him as one of Europe’s wealthiest individuals.